Ordinariness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of being commonplace highlights the absence of unique traits, emphasizing an unremarkable quality associated with everyday life
2. This concept conveys the idea of typicality, marked by a lack of extraordinary attributes that characterize the usual experience
3. The state of being unexceptional refers to the quality of existing within normal boundaries, lacking distinctive features that make anything stand out

Etymology: "Ordinariness" is simply "ordinary" with the suffix "-ness" attached, and "-ness" is one of the oldest and most productive suffixes in English. It descends from Old English "-nes", a noun-forming ending that turned adjectives into abstract nouns of quality, so "good" gave "goodness" and "kind" gave "kindness." Its distant ancestry runs back through Proto-Germanic to Proto-Indo-European, where it was built on a root meaning something like a state or condition. The base word "ordinary" is the more interesting half. It comes from Latin "ordinarius," meaning "orderly" or "regular," from "ordo," "order" or "row," and it entered English in the Middle English period through Anglo-Norman and Old French. Its original sense was closer to "according to established order" than to our modern "dull," so the word once described things that were arranged properly rather than things that were unremarkable. Put together, "ordinariness" describes the condition of conforming to the regular order of things. The suffix converts that order into a quality a thing can possess, which is why the word can be applied to a person, a meal, or an afternoon.

Synonyms: commonality, mediocrity, normality, banality, mundanity

Antonyms: exceptionality, uniqueness, extraordinariness, distinctiveness, remarkability